The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) vowed Monday to increase its aid to Ukraine in a bid to help it push forward military reforms but refused to commit itself to a timetable for the ex-Soviet country's membership.

"There is no public or secret timetable on NATO membership," NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a news conference after high-level talks in Lithuania on Ukraine's progress. "It depends on performance."

"A timetable, I can't give you," the NATO chief said. But he added that NATO's door is always open to Ukraine.

"NATO reaffirmed its open door policy and intends to offer maximum help in the implementation of the necessary reforms" in Ukraine's oversized armed forces, he said.

He said it is imperative to carry out reforms in Ukraine's defense and security affairs, and to enhance coordination between troops of NATO and Ukraine.

The next step in the NATO integration process is to develop a joint action plan for Ukrainian membership, he said.

"Ukraine's foreign policy course toward NATO, I believe, is irreversible," Ukrainian Defense Minister Anatoly Gritsenko told a news conference. "After today's discussion, we changed the position of those that were more skeptical."

Gritsenko said the pace of Ukraine's military modernization would make it ready to join in 2008.

"I am certain that, on the Ukrainian side in the military sphere, we'll be prepared by then," he said.

Ukraine already has started trimming its 285,000-strong military, which Gritsenko promised would be cut in half within the next six years. And more mobile forces will be established to operate together with NATO troops.

The defense minister said there was disagreement over Ukraine's NATO membership, especially from one unnamed member country.

"Countries are different and different member states of the alliance have different positions toward Ukraine and different beliefs ... and this is normal," he said.

Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, has been seeking entry into the military alliance over the past years.

In 2002, the then President Leonid Kuchma first announced the country's wish to join NATO.

President Viktor Yushchenko has made membership in both NATO and the European Union key goals for his nation after taking office in early 2005, and many believe that Ukraine will follow a path similar to other former Eastern bloc nations, who were offered NATO membership years before the EU opened its doors.

Last Wednesday, Yushchenko told visiting Hoop Scheffer in Kiev that gaining full membership in NATO accords with his country's national interests and is an unswerving strategic goal.

NATO membership "is a powerful incentive for the transformation of society, aimed at deepening democracy, strengthening human rights and freedoms," said the pro-Western leader.

Ukraine's NATO ambitions are strongly backed by the United States and 10 former East European nations that have joined the alliance, but some other Western members of NATO urged that Ukraine must first reduce and modernize its bloated military, prove its democratic credentials and fight corruption.

Meanwhile, Russia shows great concerns over Kiev's NATO membership, which it says will endanger its security.

Ukraine's military is based on Russian military technology, as virtually all of Ukraine's weapons and equipment are of Soviet-era design.

Russia will make more investments in enhancing its military capacity to safeguard the country's sovereignty and security if Ukraine joins NATO, said Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov in June.

Recent opinion polls however showed that most Ukrainians remain suspicious of NATO, their old Cold War foe. Many Ukrainians in eastern areas worry that NATO membership will worsen Kiev's relations with Moscow and harm the ex-Soviet country's economy.

Ukraine is heavily dependent on Russia for energy supplies.

But some analysts have predicted that Ukraine, which has strong backers within NATO such as the United States, could receive an invitation to join the alliance during NATO's 2008 summit.

Source: Xinhua